One woman shared with me, “As a mother, sometimes I am able to touch that point of deep prayer that holds us in its love, and sometimes I still worry deeply and get caught off guard.”
I believe that many women who are drawn to inner life, or who have lost someone precious, or women who have reached a dark place where they realized that they want to live more simply, or in a more true way – these women pray without knowing how to pray.
For prayer is a state of being. To be with the divine, and to be here, a link of love.
I have been made more aware of a natural way of prayer through dreams, a way to live each day. It can feel in the body as if something becomes aligned, and we know it because we can breathe more deeply.
Long ago I had my first dream of the feminine way. But it has taken 20 years to manifest. It is one thing to know. Another to live.
What I understood from that dream many years ago, is that one’s relationship to the divine within, holds all other relationships in life. Where there is a simplicity that holds all the complexity of relationships – family, care for our elders, work, and the deep need of the soul.
This was made more conscious for me several years ago, when I went to a gathering of indigenous grandmothers. There were 35 grandmothers and a few younger women. It was a gift to be there. I spoke little. But I listened. For in their generousity they shared wisdom. This wisdom touched the very core of the sacred power that belongs to a woman.
One grandmother, who had a strength like a fierce wind, was talking casually with a few women who were standing together. I just happened to be there, listening to her stories.
And then, almost as an aside, she said, “I pray all the time. When I’m beading, or cooking, or doing anything with my hands, I’m praying.”
By reflection, her way of being shines a light for each of us drawn to prayer. Where we ask not to fix or to fill, but rather to live in relation to the sacred, to the most holy within.
And this is the work, in our relationships at home and at work, in our connection to nature and the beloved earth. For this prayer is a link. A link of love, our longing to live the “one thing needful.”
Hello Marcos, So true, this journey is so mysterious and yet there is always grace. Thank you for your inspiring words and message of trust.
Oh how I wish the road to God were sahitgrt and naorrw and lit with the lamps of angels but then we would not appreciate what is at the end of our journey near so much. I have found myself neck deep in the mud puddles, the pot holes, the blind corners of life. I have considered myself roadkill at the side of the highway, another casualty in the quest for peace and the contemplative life in Christ. Each time though I found, or someone found me, who lifted my head and made me look heavenward. By keeping it in my sights I slowly and methodically got back on the road without even knowing it. My dear Christianne, keep looking up and looking forward. Your guides will come, sometimes knowingly and purposeful, and other times they are there and do not even know they are there for you. In the words of my favorite muse Dori the Fish just keep swimming, just keep swimming . The rest will fall in place in time. Peace be with thee my contemplative friend.
Dear Jeanne, Thank you for sharing about your life, for it reflects such a universal truth. That we have the possibility to live this way of prayer. It is the center of our lives. The heart of the everyday. – Anne
Dear Anne. I was raised a Christian, a Mennonite, which is a very simple religion. I learned, as the Bible says, to pray unceasingly. This became my way of being. It isn’t just ourselves that this affects, but everyone around and connected to us. I think that this is what it means to be a sufi. No matter how you get there, the depth and the consistency and the healing are the same. Thank you for your work. Jeanne Z
thank you, Ann, as always your words touch my soul.